Chessmoso
Friday, March 7, 2014
TO HAVE a good friend is one of the highest delights in life; to be a good friend is one of the noblest and most difficult undertakings.”—Anonymous.
Although we met much later in our lives (I arrived in Cebu in 1990), I consider Art my best friend. Since we met at the chess club in 1990 located at corner Pelaez and Sanciangco Sts., we were inseparable until the time he got seriously sick about four years ago and passed away recently.
Together with the late Sonny Sollano, we clicked because we had a passion—chess mixed with ice-cooled beer over intelligent conversations.
Art was my co-founder of Cepca (Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association Inc.) in 1990 and our first recruits were Sonny, Alex Tolentino, my brother Danny, Loy Minoza, Gerry Tomakin and Nicnic Climaco. We also invited Boojie Lim and Bombi Aznar as honorary members.
For our first project, we decided to do go out with a big bang. The Inter-Zonals were then held in Manila and with the help of the Cebu Lakandula Lions Club, we invited GMs Eugene Torre, Jaime Sunye-Netto of Brazil, then IMs Walter Arencibia of Cuba and Carlos Suarez of Guatemala to play simuls together at Baseline.
It was fiesta time among chess players in Cebu then and it established Cepca as an outstanding club.
I was never afraid to venture into big undertakings as I had full confidence in our members and after two terms as president we reached over 100 members.
As president, I gave recognition to Art as the most outstanding member during my terms.
A testament to the longevity of Cepca is that Sonny, Danny, Loy, Gerry and Bombi are also now playing in the afterlife.
A testament to the longevity of Cepca is that Sonny, Danny, Loy, Gerry and Bombi are also now playing in the afterlife.
Other big projects were the First Grandmaster Tournament in Cebu (1992) with the help of the Cebu Inter-family Youth Association (Cifya) whose founder is Henry Uy Hehiong and whose chess activities were coordinated by Kelly Uy (honorary member), the Cebu Chess Federation of Boojie Lim and the late Fide president Florencio Campomanes.
The GMs invited were Dibyendu Barua of India, Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh, Ye Rongguang of China and Ian Rogers of Australia. The local players were Joey Antonio, Ruben Rodriguez and Banjo Barcenilla, who are now GMs except Ruben who passed away.
This was an opportunity not to be missed as the Chess Olympiad was just recently held in Manila.
We also participated in the 1992 Sinulog and to my knowledge we are the only organization to enter in three categories—free interpretation of the Sinulog beat with 32 dancers dressed as chess players while playing the Budapest Gambit, we also had a float with Bombi Aznar as King and Darcy Tabotabo (an honorary member) and Loy Miñoza as bishops and 16 lovely ladies as pawns and we also had two higantes, representing Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
Art and Danny were the prime movers in our participation, which took more than a month to realize.
Art Llanos Ynclino was a retired employee of Acoje Mining and is married to Lucia Rivera, a retired teacher, who had served the teaching profession for almost 42 years.
Alice, the eldest, is a BSBA and is now retired and married to Vicente Atega who works with PAL. Ma. Isabel is a CPA and is married to Roberto Varquez an Engineer. Bal is a BSEE,MBA and MPA and is married to Cherry Racaza. Jerry Jesus Ynclino is deceased.
Helena is into the antique business and her better half Engracio Bucao works with the Cebu Port Authority. Carmelita, the youngest, is a CPA-Lawyer with a masters degree in business administration and works with Land Bank Makati, Main Office.
The grand children are Keith Jeremy, April Marie, Mark Jan, Chad Paolo, Charmaine and the famous swimmer Andrei Josef Ynclino.
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